R. Kerr welcomed all present and wished everyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day. There are many plans and actions that need to be in place between now and June; offered thanks to the members of the committees for their efforts and also to T. Castanza and his team for their work meeting deadlines.

L. Timoney stated that we don't have a timekeeper for tonight's meeting; A. Volpe volunteered to act as timekeeper tonight.

The Executive Committee met on March 10th at 8am and R. Kerr gave the following report:

On March 10th there was a briefing by T. Castanza with an update on the Teacher Survey. There was a lengthy discussion regarding the Executive Director Support & Transition Plan, which takes a lot of time; we updated attendees regarding the standing committee.

The Finance Committee met on March 15th at 4pm.

G. Winn gave the following report:

Josh Moreau from BoostEd and Fahron Ebanks were guests at the last Finance Committee Meeting; J. Moreau spoke about a "benchmarking document" and our financial methods score; what does NYS want to see; we are in good shape but wonder what it would look like if we had facilities costs built-in. We reviewed a first draft of the proposed school budget; looking at educational programmatic hires; expect to have the budget available for review by various committees soon and to the full board at the April general meeting; will obtain deadlines from ED for various points to getting the budget finalized by the end of the FY on  June 30th. We reviewed 2 reports on safety drills. We are working on making our payroll process  tight and managing any variances; trying to build-in controls and reviews so there are no surprises going forward. TriNet is the company that helps us with HR and payroll management for staff and allows us to economize purchasing benefits/insurance on a group basis; our insurance lines will renew at the end of FY; our insurance broker needs the renewal applications by early April; our broker will walk us through the required coverage; board members are welcome to listen-in to that call; will work with management to fine-tune an analysis of our finances before the April general board meeting. We are not eligible for the Second Round PPP Loan Program because we did not experience a quarter-over-quarter decline in revenue.

The Board Development & Governance Committee met on March 3rd at 8am.

Committee Chair L. Gyimesi is not in attendance tonight;

L.Timoney gave the following report on her behalf:

There was an update on recruitment efforts for new board members, the application process has formally begun; orientation for new board members being put in place so that the process will be smooth; still working on the Board of Trustees Handbook; update on review and changes to the Board of Trustees Bylaws was discussed; expect to have the bylaws ready before the June general meeting; our bylaws need to be aligned with the Family Association Bylaws.

The Academic Committee met on March 9, 2021 at 6pm.

R. Kerr gave the following report:

A review of the deep-dive into academic data on February 23rd was discussed; an additional and  different deep-dive will be done sometime in April; February Dashboard included general data and OG data comparison from beginning of year and mid-year indicating progress of students; our students also show progress in ELA and math. We are looking to reconfigure the Dashboard format to be more well-defined with a structure that will show the real picture to NYSED; the lack of information from standardized testing should emphasize other data that will work in our favor; 

we have the help of a data-source person to work with staff to get this ready for our NYSED review; thank you to F. DiCanio for her efforts. We looked at the Organizational Chart and the Staffing Plan and emphasized the need to hire a Director of Teaching & Learning as soon as possible.  We had a discussion with committee members regarding the change in the alignment of school day - we will have a recommendation soon for the ED and board.

T. Castanza gave the following report:

We have been working for months on an extension of our co-location at Petrides; it is a difficult and complicated process; space acquisition has many factors, including financial costs; we are co-located for 2 years and asked DoE to consider extending our time as well as our allocated space due to the increase in our student population. A letter went out to all families on this; DoE has now officially proposed extending our temporary co-location for a period of an additional 2 years and increasing our instructional capacity by allocating additional space at Petrides for us. The proposal will be presented to the Panel on Educational Policy (PEP) for a vote on April 28th at 6pm; prior to the PEP meeting there will be a virtual public meeting for community feedback on April 19th at 6pm; members of our school community can show support by offering statements at that meeting; the Family Association is getting parent volunteers to show support.at this virtual meeting. DoE will allocate space for us in Building A; some construction and renovation will be needed on the main floor of Building A; it will include an enclosed courtyard for students and staff and provide us with access to the Borough President's Hall of Science for our students. After the PEP meeting, the board members will be kept in the loop regarding the renovations.

A written Executive Director's Report was submitted to board members and much of what is contained therein was already covered tonight in the board's committee reports; regarding budget and academics, most points were already presented by the committee chairs.

A. Volpe offered the following update on the Family Association:

At the last Family Association meeting a resolution was passed regarding the officers' election; this year is considered our inaugural year, which exempts the association from holding elections; therefore A. Volpe will stay in place as president through June 2022; we are in talks about changing the association's bylaws to allow the president to serve a 2-year term and all other officers serve a 1-year term - there appears to be general agreement; our pro-bono tax attorney is willing to to advise us on how to correctly meet the 501(c)3 tax exempt requirements and will represent us to obtain our tax-exempt designation; the reason that we are able to get such wonderful pro-bono assistance is because our school and T. Castanza are so well-regarded - our greatest resource is our human resource; parents appreciate the leadership of our school. ED spoke at association's meeting about the planned building expansion; parents very much support the expansion; families also approve of the adjustment of the school day from 8:15am to 3:15pm; parents would like to see after-school programs offered, a sports program or physical activity; children are online too much due to COVID restrictions; currently looking into a grant for an after-school STEM program.

M. Casale - Would like to see a qualitative assessment or an inventory sent home to parents asking them what type of after-school programs they would like to see offered; we could then determine how many are interested in a physical activity program or an academic program so we can customize.

A. Volpe offered to get that information through the Family Association by the next regular board meeting.

T. Castanza - This is something the school has already done with a parents' survey which can be built out a little more with an after-school section via Google. 

R. Kerr - UAU and other community based organizations offer a myriad of options; they break it up into segments and a single CBO can offer a number of these activities.

A. Volpe - Agreed that one vendor can offer many different types of activities or clubs, and parents can choose which activities/how many activities in which to enroll their children.

T. Castanza - We have no shortage of organizations that want to be involved with our school, i.e., CYO, UAU, chess club, etc. and we have the ability to offer a wide variety of programs.

Board members agreed to take up this topic again when they have more information.

R. Illuzzi - Families call to say they have relatives or friends who are now applying for admission; the 100-day responses are testaments to the hard work of everyone at the school, the leadership, teachers, school aides, and parents of our incredible Family Association - it is a privilege to see how much our school is loved; she thanked everyone for their time as volunteers. 

T. Castanza - The parents' 100-day responses have not yet been given to the board but will be merged with staff's responses and shared with board members soon.